


With Questions Why And Wherefore

by honeymink



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 1, F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-16
Updated: 2019-03-16
Packaged: 2019-11-20 19:40:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18131171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honeymink/pseuds/honeymink
Summary: Sharon is determined to get answers from Natasha.





	With Questions Why And Wherefore

**Author's Note:**

  * For [semperfiona](https://archiveofourown.org/users/semperfiona/gifts).



“Tea? Coffee? Scotchfinger?” 

Sharon pushes her cart through the busy hallways of Stark Industries. Her knuckles white from her tight grip on the carved handles as one of the brass wheels jiggles out of line, making the cart hard to steer.

“Hey, two coffees, Marge!” yells Walker from the corner office. Perhaps she should be flattered that he remembers the name that’s embroidered on her white shirt. “And none of that saccharine stuff, real sugar, eh?”

When Sharon reins in the cart and makes it stop the wheels creak audibly. It’s rather annoying really. Billions of dollars’ worth of the finest technology known to mankind in this building, but zero investment in working tea cart technology. 

Five offices and three sales later, she has reached her destination. The lock is frightfully easy to pick, then again, this is merely office space. Hardly the underground labs where Stark keeps his precious, dangerous inventions.

Office 246/b is small, empty, out of the way. More of a closet really. Sharon manoeuvres the cart inside, closes the door. A glance at her Patek Philippe indicates, she still has time… time for a cup of tea… time to read a few pages in the well-worn red leather journal her aunt had entrusted her with.

_It was a one-time pad system, written in Russian that led us to what we later learnt was called the Red Room. 53° 52’ N, 27° 37’ E, coordinates leading to a Soviet military complex. What we found was rather astonishing – a boarding school, beds for girls but with handcuffs, U.S. American cartoons. We came across a lone young girl, who seemed innocent at first. Perhaps we should have known better. Now, of course I have read the training files, about what they euphemistically call ‘wastage levels’, the children that do not make it. No second chances, just dead bodies, broken in their hunt to make perfect obedient loyal assassins. Like the woman who lived next door to me and called herself ‘Dottie Underwood’…_

Sharon’s tea has gone cold. She is here to liaison with one of these girls grown into a woman. The door opens.

“Expected me to enter through the ventilation shaft, Carter?”

Natasha keeps a straight face, no sign of a smile but there’s a movement in her eyes and Sharon knows it well.

“Tea? Coffee? Scotchfinger?” asks Sharon sweetly. “I come with thorny questions, Romanoff, you might as well indulge while you can.”

“The Lithium dioxide is keeping the edge off,” Natasha pours herself a cup of coffee with milk. “Stark works without ceasing on the Expo and his new armor. You can tell Fury that.”

Sharon considers this, a little frown of concern between her brows. “Enough to keep Hammer and Vanko in check if it comes to that?”

“Who knows, Carter?” Natasha shrugs with a nonchalant and careless air. 

There’s a drop of milk in the corner of Natasha’s mouth. And Sharon thinks it’s rather aggravating that she cannot simply lick it off. Meanwhile Natasha is leaning in. Her black dress so very tight. Now she smirks, she breathes, she repeats, “Who knows…”

The words crawl beneath Sharon’s skin. They have a different ring to them there, which cannot be heard, yet clearly felt. A little shudder passes through her body.

“Indeed. Who knows, Romanoff?” Sharon forces the smile back on her face. "I'm just considering all the angles. It seems you have a lot of them."

Finally, Natasha licks her lips. “Morning, midday, at night. I’m a different person, Carter. Care to find out more?”

 

**~Fin~**


End file.
